University launches free online course in Bitcoin and Digital Currencies

The University of Nicosia, based in Cyprus, has announced today it has opened enrolment in a 6 week, free and open online course titled ‘Introduction to Digital Currencies’ and is aimed at anyone interested in gaining a better grasp of the fundamentals of bitcoin and digital currency.

Due to start on 15th May, the MOOC (massive open online course) is open to anyone with enough proficiency in English to understand the instruction, which will be given by the university’s computer science and finance professors, as well as resident bitcoin expert Andreas Antonopoulos, a University of Nicosia Teaching Fellow, who said of the course:

It is an excellent opportunity for anyone to develop a good understanding of the technical and non-technical aspects of decentralized currencies in general and, more specifically, explore both bitcoin (the network) and bitcoin (the currency).

Students will be expected to participate in course sessions, complete exercises along the way and be assessed at the end of the course. The free MOOC also serves as an introduction to prospective students interested in their masters degree in digital currency, by representing the first 6 weeks of that course.

The University of Nicosia (UNIC) is the largest independent university in Cyprus and one of the largest English language universities in southern Europe. The masters degree course is available both online and on-campus, and is aimed at solidifying the knowledge of anyone involved in the digital currency sphere, from finance professionals and entrepreneurs to government officials.

Venture capitalist and university of Nicosia board member, Antonis Polemitis, has been one of the driving forces behind the courses as well as a teacher. He said UNIC’s program was truly unique by bringing together the interdisciplinary fields of study that all-round digital currency expertise demanded.

Last year, several members of our Board and our faculty started studying bitcoin and came to the conclusion that it was a major innovation in Computer Science that would have significant implications for finance…

“Given that we believe that this will be an important societal area, we decided, as the Board-level to make an investment of time and resources in this area.”

He added that other universities around the world, including Princeton, Stanford and George Mason, were also considering the topics. University of Nicosia, however, remains the only university currently offering an actual Masters Degree and free MOOC, open to anyone.

UNIC began to accept bitcoin as a payment method for tuition fees in November last year and within weeks received its first bitcoin paying student. They’re now offering a 5% discount for any student paying with bitcoin.

For more information on the ‘Introduction to Digital Currencies’ course, click here.